Nature of and in a great city!

From our walks around Detroit, this is our blog of animals, insects, trees, plants and other things from nature that we see. Most of the photos are ones that S.or I have taken in our neighborhood or during our travels in the city.

Saturday, April 04, 2009

Super Squirrels

Squirrels are pretty much everywhere. Over the winter a few years back, they gnawed a hole through a hard plastic garbage can. After patching it, they gnawed more holes. Then we got a new garbage can and they gnawed a hole through that. Finally, we wised-up and left that hole open (so they would not make more holes). So, when the can isn't in the garage, they pretty much have free reign. Rumor has it that there are man-eating squirrels behind a school a few blocks away. S. and her friends have seen the alleged man-eating squirrels with their own eyes, but we haven't fact-checked their dietary habits to date. Like other parts of southern Michigan and Ontario, most squirrels in Detroit are Eastern Gray squirrels with black fur (a melanism). Here are some facts on squirrels:

Their brain is roughly the size of a walnut.

They sharpen and clean their teeth by chewing tree branches and other things.

They are considered to be "living fossils because they haven't changed much in 37 million years."